Festivals are Rituals for Regeneration and Revival

The other day, I saw a NHK’s TV program entitled “Sunday Forum: Ise and the Japanese People.” As I had a thing to do, I could see only a part of it. But it was instructive.

the other day 先日

instructive ためになる

In the program, a scholar was answering the question “Why is Ise Grand Shrine rebuilt every twenty years?” As is often a common explanation, he said that twenty years was a reasonable period in terms of the succession of culture and technology and the alteration of generations.

scholar 学者

rebuild 立て直す

succession 継承

alteration 交代

generation 世代

But after that, he added something interesting. To put it simply, “To maintain the spiritual power of the holy spirit, twenty years is the limit. In more than twenty years, the power would decline and fade away. Therefore, we need to hold a big festival called Sengu（遷宮）every twenty years to resuscitate and regenerate or revive the holy spirit.”

maintain 維持する

limit 限界

decline 衰える

fade away 消える

therefore したがって

resuscitate カツを入れる

regenerate 再生する

revive 復活させる

I was both surprised and glad to hear this because he said the spiritually right thing from a scholar’s point of view. According to s study in ancient writings of religious services of Ise Grand Shrine, a lot of rituals and festivals held there seem to have been held on the ground that the holy spirit repeats life and death just like the sun rises and sets.

glad 嬉しい

point of view 観点

according to A Aによると

ritual 儀式

ground 根拠

Various festivals are held at shrines and temples all over Japan every year, in which people carry omikoshi, a portable shrine, in a parade. Some are furious and valiant festivals that participants go naked or have a fight with each other. People, with Inner God inside them, get together at a festival, have fun and get wildly excited.

furious 激しい

valiant 勇壮な

participant 参加者

go naked 裸になる

I sometimes see that some spiritual magnetism which represents life energy of a lot of people is gathering into the portable shrine carried by an enthusiastic crowd and is getting big like a ball. At the end of the festival, the portable shrine is put back in the main building of the shrine and so is this ball of energy.

magnetism 磁気

enthusiastic 熱狂的な

The ball gets smaller during the course of a year as people pray for something and when the festival starts again, the ball revives. Therefore, if shinto rituals such as festivals fall into desuetude, the holy spirit as well as shrine and temples will be gone.

fall uno desuetude 廃れる

be gone いなくなる

Sengu of Ise Grand Shrine is the huge festival that it takes twenty years to prepare. Starting to make gifts presented to the holy spirit many years before the festival is the start of the shinto ritual creating spiritual magnetism.

prepare 準備する

Exchanging water in a small, white container put in front of a household shinto alter and offering three incense sticks toward it, which are done every morning at home, are also a deed creating spiritual magnetism and it regenerates and revives the holy spirit and ancestral spirits everyday. People who do this, affected by the reflection, regenerate themselves everyday.